A pair of bills are before the Florida Legislature that would extend to the online world the protection children have from exposure to pornography in the rest of their lives.
One measure would criminalize posting "lewd or lascivious" material that can be viewed by minors, and the other would mandate the reporting of computers housing child pornography. Both were approved recently by the House Committee on Juvenile Justice.
Sponsors hope to crack down on child pornography and to blunt the spread of "cam" sites associated with online pornography and voyeurism. The bills were proposed by a working group of lawmakers, including law enforcement and computer industry officials, which grappled with the issues of objectionable material and online child pornography.
The bill to ban "lewd and lascivious" material would impose a criminal penalty against an offender who transmits such material over an online service and has reason to believe the material will be seen by anyone in Florida who is 16 or younger.
Backers say that cheap video cameras, which can be attached to computers to allow two-way video communications, are increasingly used to transmit sexual material.
"Although there are obvious benefits to improved communications, such advances may also provide new avenues for offenders who prey upon children to reach their target audience," a staff analysis for the committee said. "Unfortunately, the present law provides no penalty for an offender who commits what would otherwise be lewd and lascivious exhibition when the offender commits the act in the 'virtual' presence of the child, rather than in the 'real' presence of the child."
Rep. Sharon Merchant, R-North Palm Beach, said the goal was to address the ease with which children can access adult Internet sites.
Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Thomas Sadaka, who wrote the initial draft of the proposed statutes, said both laws extend existing state law.
"The lewd and lascivious statute simply states that if you were to perform the same act in front of a child in person, that act when conducted live via the computer, Internet, closed circuit TV, etc., would also constitute a violation of the same act," Sadaka said. "It essentially expands the definition of 'in the presence of' to include virtual presence, although it is not that broad."
He said the reporting mandate is similar to current state law that requires the reporting of child abuse. Computer repair technicians, system administrators and Internet service providers who fail to report finding child pornography could face misdemeanor charges.
"Child pornography is child abuse, so, arguably, under current Florida law an individual who discovers evidence of child pornography would have a legal obligation to report it to law enforcement or the Department of Child and Family," said Sadaka. "This statute specifically spells out that if you discover evidence of child pornography on a computer, either in your role as a computer repair person or system administrator, etc., you have a legal obligation to report that to law enforcement. Failure to do so is a crime, and the false report is also a crime."
But Chief Assistant State Attorney Jay Plotkin in Duval County suggested that prosecutions under the proposed law might be difficult due to the sharing of computers by many people and the fact that various workers may toil with a single machine.
Cecil Greek, an assistant professor of criminology at Florida State University, said that online camera sites range from those that are freely available to those that restrict access.
"State-enacted legislation that involves crimes committed via the Internet is likely to create nightmares to actually enforce. If the victim and offender are not in the same state, a multistate investigation will need to be initiated. It might be better to bring these legislative proposals to the national level and get clear definitions acceptable to all states," said Creek.
Because the proposed law that would mandate the reporting of child pornography on a computer to authorities, Creek questioned whether it's wise to make it a crime to not report a crime.
"As to the mandatory reporting of seeing child pornography on someone else's computer with a penalty for not doing so, it is an extension of penalties for failure to take an action such as good Samaritan laws," Creek said. "Do we want to make it a crime not to report a crime? Would not serious crimes like murders, robberies and assaults be more in need of immediate reporting."
